On Tue, Mar 24, 2026 at 13:08 (-0700), William Morder via tde-users wrote:
On Tuesday 24 March 2026 12:41:22 Jim wrote:
Have you tried starting soffice from the command line like this:
GDK_DPI_SCALE=2 soffice
On my system that makes the fonts ludicrously big. But you might be able to fine-tune the number (you can use decimal fractions like 1.2 or 1.7) and get something that works for you.
This (above) is an interesting idea, and I may give it a try, but for now, my OO works just fine.
That was actually directed at someone much further up-thread, whose comments have now been edited out.
Long ago I tried to make peace with Libre Office, and it cannot be done.
Depending on what you mean by "make peace", that may not really be true.
I mean, can I actually *use* Libre Office to write, to get anything done? The answer is, NO. It is not a problem of my own configuration, unless maybe you mean that I have multiple documents open at the same time.
No, I mean that (as I understand it) many people (I even know a few myself) successfully use LO to create, edit and read documents.
So I don't quite understand how you can say it isn't a "you" problem when other people are able to use it, but you say you can't get anything done with it.
Maybe somebody out there knows how to get inside LO to change the interface, but I spent a couple years searching for such a solution.
I am not a fan of either libre office or open office, so I don't use either except under extreme duress. But just out of curiosity, what is it about the interface you don't like? The icons? The fonts? The way the menus are arranged? Something else?
The fonts are so tiny that I literally cannot read them, not even if I get nose-close to the screen.
Configuration problem. A way to solve it is above.
The contrast between font color and background cannot be changed, and will only accept settings from KDE Plasma (or maybe, Gnome).
Are you talking about the document? I have black text on white background. I guess some people don't like that much contrast.
To make the background grey, in case you want black text on grey background:
Tools / Options / LibreOffice / Appearance uncheck "Use white document background" Customize background just below there.
I don't know why you think it can't be changed. It's right there in the menus on my system.
Libre Office, as far as I am concerned, is practically useless. Not only is the interface unreadable,
That's just plain not a valid complaint about libre office, that is a complaint about your config/system. The interface is very readable on my system,
But I thought that you just said, you don't use either Libre Office or Open Office? What do you use then, WordStar or WordPerfect or something other?
Not that it is relevant to making LO look how one wants, but... I use TeX or ConTeXt for writing documents and presentations. Gnumeric for spreadsheets. I don't tend to do the sort of drawings that (I imagine) you can do in LO.
and I don't think there is anything magic about my system.
but also it is very slow, like pouring molasses on a cold day. It sometimes would take me 5-10 minutes just for it to appear on screen when I changed from one screen to another.
One of the reasons I don't like Libre office is because it is slow, I agree with you there.
I should have said it is nowhere near as slow for me as for you. Maybe your system has (way) too much going on for the amount of RAM you have and/or the CPU you have.
For me, it takes about 3 seconds to start up. I think that is slow, but it isn't minutes.
I use gnumeric for spreadsheets, and it is way, way, way faster.
I don't do spreadsheets. That is for the numbers and money people; i.e., the ones who find ways not to pay me for work that I've done.
I use office programs to write. Last time I had to use a spreadsheet for anything was about 20 years ago, and I hope never to use one again.
Well, I find it handy for some things, but if you don't, that's fine.
In the end, I went back to Open Office, which works better for me in every way, is faster, and also accepts TDE colors and fonts. The menu entries are not so much enlarged, but because OO accepts my TDE color scheme, I can make the GUI more legible.
Unfortunately there are a lot of thing in OO that need updating. I understand that it has considerably less capability with included images than LO. But if its image inclusion ability is all you need, I guess that wouldn't be an issue for you.
Personally, I think that Open Office is still just the lesser of two evils; it works a lot better and faster (at least, for myself) than Libre Office. I really wish somebody would come out with a word processing program that actually just plain WORKS, the way they used to be.
I don't know how responsive the LO people are, but it is possible if you report some shortcomings with it that they might listen to you.
I started using ConTeXt a couple of years ago. There is a mailing list where the chief developers get back to questions often within an hour or two, and they were very patient with me when I was a complete n00b, and they are patient with other people too. This is a bit exceptional (in my experience), but maybe the LO people are helpful as well.
Other people's results may vary. If others out there have somehow discovered a better word processor, I would give it a try.
I suspect the problem is that better is in the eye of the beholder, and Bob's better isn't the same as your better.
And if Libre Office works for you, I am glad for you.
It works. I rarely use it.
But for me, in my experience, Libre Office is far and away the worst, the slowest, the most frustrating word processor that I have ever used.
I have never used a word processor that I didn't find annoying and frustrating, which is why I don't use them.
And I am pretty sure it's not just my settings;
I'm pretty sure some of your annoyance is with your settings.
unless you mean that I ought to organize my work in a manner completely different from how I written ever since I changed over from a typewriter to a desktop computer.
No, I mean that you can change the font size and you can change the colour of the background and various other things to suit yourself, which will make things less frustrating for you. If you refuse to do so, that is not a valid criticism of LO (or any other program).
I have no idea how you organize your work, and so I have no idea if that is part of the problem you are having.
By the way, for what it's worth, I still remember when handwritten manuscripts were the norm, and typewriters were only starting to become necessary. This is from back in the Bible days, when I was younger.
And the woolly mammoths roamed the earth.
Yeah, I used typewriters too.
Jim